The new medical marijuana dispensary in Woodbridge served more than 430 patients in its first two weeks of operation, when most people didn’t know it existed. It expects to serve about 40 a day when it is fully up and running.

Which tells you this: Lots of very sick people in New Jersey want this help. And if we had more than three centers in the state, more people could get it.

So why don’t we have more? One reason is that local governments have put up roadblocks. But the main problem is that Gov. Chris Christie hates this law, and has done all in his power to sabotage it.

The law allowed for at least six centers, with no cap. The governor’s team awarded only three licenses and has since closed the window on any expansion, despite the long waiting lists. He’s also thrown up pointless roadblocks that were not in the law.

He banned home deliveries. He placed a cap on potency. He has limited the program to non-profit operators, making it tougher to raise money. Patients must spend several hundred dollars on licenses and doctors’ fees. And they typically must wait months to get help, making the program useless for many cancer patients on chemotherapy or radiation.

Earlier this year the governor loosened the pointless restrictions on the strains of marijuana allowed, a gesture to the Wilson family of Scotch Plains, whose toddler suffers from life-threatening seizures. But they still have been unable to get the type of marijuana their daughter needs, and the governor says he won’t allow them to obtain it from another state with a similar program.

"Every time you sign one expansion, then the advocates will come back and ask for another one," the governor says. "They want legalization of marijuana in New Jersey. It will not happen on my watch, ever. I am done expanding the medical marijuana program under any circumstances."

According to Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union), an infant from New Jersey with the same disorder as the Wilsons’ child died over the Thanksgiving weekend while the family tried in vain to obtain the type of marijuana the Wilsons are seeking, a strain that young children can tolerate in edible forms.

For most people, the governor’s sabotage of this program is not life-threatening. It just denies them a small measure of comfort in their darkest hour.

Yes, New Jersey should rethink its misguided marijuana laws. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the state spent $125 million enforcing them in 2010, with more than 22,000 people arrested, marked for life as criminals. Still, marijuana, a softer drug than alcohol by any measure, is readily available on the streets. TBut that is a different topic. The medical marijuana program is limited to people with severe pain caused by a confined list of serious diseases, like cancer and multiple sclerosis.

These people should not be put on waiting lists. They should not have to drive an hour to find a dispensary. They should not have to wrestle with bureaucratic hurdles. Until the governor’s hard-nosed attitude changes, we wish them luck on the black market.